I remember my colleague Stevie reviewing Lucy Kitchen’s single “Red Skies.” As the one who usually covers the country corner here, I was the natural choice to spend time with the full album. There is a sad back story to this album that I will share with you in the press release.- so press release first, then my review.
“British singer-songwriter Lucy Kitchen has announced her forthcoming album In The Low Light, set for release on February 27th 2026 via Bohemia Rose Records/Make My Day Records.
Following her recent summer single “Red Skies,” the acclaimed folk artist now turns her sights towards the upcoming new album In the Low Light – a beautiful collection shaped by personal loss and quiet resilience. Blending hypnotic folk with subtle threads of Americana and the timeless spirit of 1970s singer-songwriters, the album marks a deeply personal chapter in Lucy’s life.
Written in the wake of her husband’s death in October 2022 the record explores themes of loss, grief, memory, and transformation. Yet within its sorrow, there are glimpses of joy, gratitude, and rediscovery. For Lucy, the act of creating became a lifeline; a way to process pain, honour love, and slowly reassemble herself through music.
“A lot of it was written in the run up to and aftermath of my husband Stephen’s death from cancer,” explains Lucy. “Some of these songs began as tiny poems I started writing as a way of capturing thoughts and feelings with no intention or pressure to turn them into songs… but over time some of them found their melody.”
“For me, making this album was actually an incredibly life affirming, quite joyful experience. I’m interested in exploring the idea of rebirth through creativity – coming back to ourselves through our art and making something beautiful out of something hard.”
“Making this album re-built me more than anything else” says Lucy. “From the moment we started recording I just felt this pure excitement to be creating something new with these amazing musicians. I think when you’re recording you embody the music and everything else falls away so for me it just felt like magic. I felt like it brought me back to myself and what I love to do.”
“I can’t wait for everyone to hear the album” she concludes: “We all lose things throughout our lives through death, endings, leavings and I hope people find their own stories within these songs and connect with the idea that we can make beautiful things out of these events, and still move forward with our dreams.”
My review: 11 songs.
“Winter King” – Winter is the stark season of cold and Shakespeare tells us in ‘Winter’s Tale’ that a sad song is best for Winter. “You Come to me on Raven’s Wings” sings Lucy, in a song that is a lament for the love that waits. It is a haunting opener, folk based and is a tale of yearning for the one who is lost. The song is intimate, listen with a candle and a warm drink as the wind howls in the distance.
“In My Corner” picks up the mood a bit, it has a touch of the campfire about it. It remains lyrically heavy with longing about the miss we have for the one in our corner who tells us that we matter. I can identify with the lyrics of Lucy, that is why I am drifting along to the music. It’s simple, the emphasis on the lyrics and the story.
“The Ways We Were” highlights some gentle use of the strings.‘The Ways We Were’ , recorded with Jon Thorne on double bass, reflects on the disorienting passage of time after loss, capturing the feeling of life slipping through your fingers. I slipped further down on the sofa as I listened to the song, pulled the blanket a little tighter and felt sad.
“Olivia” is a tale about helping someone else over a glass of wine and time. It was a song that pleasantly drifted and it played with these ghostly melodies. It’s a late night number.
“Blue Light” is a very intimate song, where the moment you know things won’t be okay any more. It makes me feel as if I am in the room with the musician, it’s immediate and has these little personal moments, like a past half-finished jigsaw where there is no-one to hold you when that special person has gone.
“Milk & Honey” is a slow, romantic sway, ‘wishing for things to be different, simpler, uncomplicated but knowing that you can’t have that and how you come to terms with accepting that,’ explains Lucy. This continues the intimate connection between singer and listener, those gentle strings and simple back beat have you dreaming of what could have been too.
“Sunny Days” reminded me of that Harry Potter moment when Dumbledore tells us that even in the darkest of times we often only need to remember to turn on the light. This track moves toward jazz and is an uplifting moment in an album of lament poetry. ‘I liked the idea of the lightness in this song, bringing something else to the record so it wasn’t all just about death and grief and loss,’ comments Lucy, and it does lift the mood for sure.
“Red Skies” brings a country feel to the album and the thought of heading off for a late night drink, even though it’s only Tuesday night. The song is about finding your dancing feet when the rest of you possibly wants to crawl under the bedcovers and stay there.
“Chemo Song” is devastatingly tender — beautifully sung, but emotionally unflinching..It is a song reflecting on how life is slipping away and the wolves are gathering. Lucy says about this song: ‘Chemo Song,’ written during the final stages of Stephen’s first round of chemotherapy, evokes a suspended reality. “It felt like we were shut off in our own little world, like something out of a fairy tale. It was like everything was paused and we were just waiting for Spring.” This is a song of lengthening shadows and the grief of what will come. Snow is coming.
“The Boatman” – defiantly faces death. It has a gentle rhythm and in myth the boatman takes the dead over to the other side – they used to bury people with a coin so they could pay the boatman for the journey. This one stands by the river bank and rests a while.
“Septembers Come” – Lucy tells us this is a gorgeous lament of just vocals and guitar in which Lucy seeks to reclaim September, once her favourite time of year, but now deeply marked by the passing of her husband. It’s this navigation between grief’s overwhelming presence and the quiet act of returning to life that gives the album its sense of hope. For Lucy grief isn’t a process, more of an unravelling and re-building that goes in circles.’
It gently closes the album and took me toward another September Song, “When September Ends” (Greenday) which also reflects on loss in September – both songs note the month of passing.
Okay… in summary…
I will return for a moment to Shakespeare, who also wrote songs of death — “Come Away, Death” from Twelfth Night for example. Lament poetry has always had its place in art. Songs that sit with grief are just as vital as songs of celebration. Perhaps even more so.
In the Low Light is not simply an album about loss. It is an album about love — about what remains when someone is no longer physically present. It is about memory, resilience, and the quiet courage of continuing.
Yes, it made me feel sad as I listened. But sadness in art is not a weakness — it is proof of connection. Some of my favourite films leave me in tears; some of the best records do too. Lucy Kitchen has created something that does not rush grief, does not decorate it, and does not apologise for it.
Instead, she turns toward it — and in doing so, finds light.
And perhaps that is the real gift of this album: in the low light, when everything feels dim, there is still warmth. There is still music. There is still love. Sometimes there is too much of the edge of winter there for me, but I am so pleased I listened.
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‘In The Low Light’ features:
Tali Trow – Guitars, banjo, piano, mellotron, backing vocals (& co-producer)
Jon Thorne – Double bass
Pat Kenneally – Drums
Michael Davies – Pedal Steel
Peter Mojzeš – Strings
Sam Ehret-Pickett – brass (on Blue Light)
Artist website is here
Stream music from Lucy Kitchen here
By Lorraine Foley
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